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Auckland Institute. 658 
had acquired a knowledge of weaving, flax being cultivated and woven into 
tissues ; agriculture had made a start, and such animals as the ox, sheep, 
goat, pig and dog were domesticated. 
Weaving.—The piece of cloth we have here is apparently made of flax, 
the warp and the woof being wonderfully regular, and indicating a great 
advance in civilization. Hemp does not appear to have been known. 
Grain.—One of the small bottles in the collection contains some car- 
bonized cereal, whether wheat or barley I cannot say. Three varieties of 
wheat, two kinds of barley, and two of millet, were cultivated, but how the 
ground was prepared I cannot discover, no acknowledged agricultural im- 
plements having been found as yet. It is a fact that they made bread, 
apparently however without leaven. The specimens that have been found 
very closely resemble badly-made ‘‘damper.’”’ Sometimes they appear to 
have roasted the grains, pounded them between stones and stored them 
away in earthenware vessels made pointed at the bottom, so that they could 
easily stand upright in the ground. Carbonized apples have also been 
found. There are no traces of the grape; but what are supposed to be 
stones of the wild plum, seeds of the raspberry and blackberry, and shells 
of the hazel nut and beech nut, occur pretty frequently, while in one settle  - 
_ Ment peas have been discovered. 
Animals.—Professor Riitimeyer, who has paid great attention to the fauna 
of this period, tells us that the total number of species amounts to 70, and — 
that at least 6 of these, the dog, horse, pig, goat, sheep, and two varieties of 
oxen, were domesticated. He says, also, that the bones very seldom occur in 
a natural condition, those of domestic and wild animals are mixed together, 
the marks of knives are upon many, and almost all have been broken, 
_ evidently for their marrow. The stag and the ox seem to have been 
specially numerous, the stag in the older settlements exceeding the ox in 
the number of specimens, while in the more modern ones the converse is 
true. The hog appears to come next in order of abundance, followed by 
the goat and the sheep, which latter seems to have increased very rapidly. 
The dog is found less frequently than the fox. Remains of the bear, the 
- wolf, the bison, and the elk have also been found. The stag and the boar 
of those times seem to have been much larger than they are now, the fox 
smaller, and the sheep about the same size as those now grazing on the 
mountain sides in Wales and Shetland. People were free from the presence 
_ of the common mouse and the house-rat, and as puss was not therefore re- _ oe 
: wed, so she did not appear. Professor Riitimeyer found a enae bone of 2 
